I must...

When I was a child, I used to love the speed and thrill of sledding in the winter. I used to love the first warm spring day when we pulled out our baseball gloves for our own spring training. I used to love the long summer days that seemed to never end, playing Kick the Can and Capture the Flag late into the night. I used to love lying out in the soft summer grass, gazing up at the clouds, searching for shapes and stories in the summer sky. I used to love looking up at the night sky to see if I could find Orion's Belt. I used to love catching leaves, aflame with color, floating gently down on a fresh fall afternoon. 

Lately, I've been wondering what it was that made those childhood moments so magical. What made me feel so alive? What filled my soul with such joy and light? 

What about you? What fired you up and made you feel fully alive as a child? What brought a smile to your face, a tear to your eye, a shiver to your soul?  What made you want to sing or dance or play or share your deepest heart's longing? What helped you know yourself, your truth, most deeply?

Was it a particular place? Was it a person? Was it a song? Was it a still moment? Was it a story?  As you call to mind the source of your inspiration, the feelings, the place, the moment, ask yourself what made it sacred? What made you feel holy? What made you whole?

Only you can answer these questions.  Only you can find and know your truth.  As you do so, you will find life, liberation, love.  As you do, you will know the ache that erupts in the core of your being and cries out, "I must... for I can do nothing else."

I must write. I must sing. I must dance. I must draw. I must paint. I must help. I must learn. I must tell my story. I must pray. I must sit still. I must run. I must play. I must work. I must rest. I must feel.

I must moves us from fear to freedom.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison because he could do nothing else. Mother Teresa picked up the first person lying destitute in the streets of Calcutta because she could do nothing else. Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night because he could do nothing else. Joni Mitchell wrote and sang River because she could do nothing else. Bob Marley wrote and sang Redemption Song because he could do nothing else. Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams founded Peace People because they could do nothing else.

Lately, I've been wondering what it was that made those childhood moments so magical. What made me feel so alive? What filled my soul with such joy and light? 

 

Maybe the answer has something to do with the grace, energy and mystery of the must.  What must you do?

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”  ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods